Asma Al Assad's image in the western media has taken a turn for the worse since the Syrian uprising began. The wife of a man now regarded the world over as something of a murderous tyrant, she was previously feted by leaders of European countries; in fact, she was born in one, and carries a UK passport. There are many faces to Asma Al Assad: sometimes western, sometimes Arab; sometimes philanthropic, sometimes a banker. Always stylish. And, as recently most attested, the unremittingly good wife. A look at how Syria's ...

On the back of the Guardian's vanguard ground work to breaking 'The Assad Emails' into the public domain, here's a look at the juiciest revelations to emerge from this sensational finding. Just yesterday, the UK's newspaper dedicated a special space to these Assad-Leaks. The British publication yesterday and today ran with an exclusive preview into the 'real' cyberlives of President Bashar al-Assad and his First Lady Asma al-Assad when it shared an intimate batch of emails between the leading family and their inner circle. The Guardian emphasized the highly sensitive ...

A year on from the (Twitter hash-tagged, aptly named) "March 15" 2011 official start of the Syrian round of the wider Arab crisis, Syria's endgame looks nowhere in sight. One year anniversary, and counting. A Spring-Cleansing Marking the one year anniversary of revolution on March 15, 2012 when Syria's uprising lifted off in Damascus, having been conceived in Derra, we find the eye of the storm devastating Homs . The hottest spot of the Syrian conflict today, where massacres have cleansed both people and the city's infrastructure in one regime-destroying ...

As Greece meets the second stage of its bailout conditions, achieving a winning debt or bond-swap that has scored it some Euro points, we ask the question whether, in spite of Greek's firm bid to remain entrenched in the Euro, it should consider a 'swap' of a fundamentally different kind. While Euro-ministers are set to meet tomorrow, Monday 12th March, to officially sign off on Greece's second bailout, we entertain the idea that Greece not be more at home in the Arab lands, trading Europe for the Middle East? Just ...

After a much-fan-fared buildup, Arab Idol has well and truly-arrived, with no shortage of drama to add to an ordinarily heated region. The Arabic edition of the notorious talent show, American Idol, shown regionally by MBC, comes as a tweaked Arab 'Superstar' - its predecessor from the Lebanese channel, Future TV. After Arab Idol's forerunner had ran its course, MBC bought the rights to broadcast the show in a similar format, changing the name to the internationally branded, 'Idol' series. Uniting the Arab world from the Arabian Gulf to the ...

While co-Arab nations are undergoing turmoil and labor pangs of 'change', in Iraq it's business as usual. Suicide bombings, accusations and counter-accusations flying around to name perpetrators, unemployment, power cuts, repression and revolution in equal measure. Here, we catch up with Iraq at a time when the media seems to have lost interest, since Pre-Arab Spring this nation had its own peculiar set of circumstances and causes for complaint. Throughout the 2000's Iraq had already lived a wave of protests and civil resistance to the occupation, both peaceful and armed ...

With the results of Bashar al-Assad's poll to detect his popularity in, we cast our eyes on those Syrian super stars and movie-icons. How did they place their ballots? Was it a Yay or Nay to their President's (indecent) proposal: the r eferendum to approve a new constitution that pledged oodles of reform, while he continues to bombard the people of Homs. Said the President to the People President Bashar al-Assad's government announced already that voters had overwhelmingly approved a new constitution in a referendum that wracked up a convincing ...

While Jordan's 'corruption' files have been on the radar now arguably since the 1980's, the renewed interest has no-doubt had something to do with the ever-threatening Arab Spring that Jordan has coyly kept at bay. To date, Jordan's interplay with the Arab uprisings could be described as paying lip service to the Arab revolution fever, (with a steady share of protesting and pro-reform activism to show for its pains) but not really engaging it as seriously as neighbors have. Jordan has still not gone that extra revolutionary mile to insist ...

Celebrities in the Arab world, as elsewhere are premium, hot stuff. They are stalked, chased, and hunted down by anything from paparazzi to people with snazzy phone cameras. Their's is a life of pressure and oftentimes distress, as they live every moment in the public gaze, devoid of privacy and the space to keep anything, let alone private marriages, from the media lens. Scandals, while more commonplace in the western world, can still cause big upsets, marring lives in the Eastern world. Sex is still taboo and strictly for marriage ...

Firmly into 2012, how are the Arab revolutions developing? Perhaps they are bored or tired out of the protest gig of 2011 already. We check in with some of the Arab protest pictures to gauge to what extent they have reached revolution saturation, or on the contrary are just getting started. Are they showing signs of protest fatigue, or instead symtoms of a revolutionary frenzy? Are they picking up momentum or tapering off to a standstill? Have these Arab awakenings spread as far as they can go into the protest- ...

Where is the love in the Middle East this Valentine's Day? In light of Valentine's Day and Whitney Houston's untimely death , so close to the calendar day on which we traditionally enjoy her love ballads, we decided to pair some of her greatest hit titles with some loveless Arab leaders, and some defining moments from the Arab Spring plus general war-torn region. While not without its moments of love and unity, this Arab season, more recentlly steeped in ongoing conflict, has been quite devoid of love. With no Whitney ...